


Decennium terrae

by orphan_account



Category: Naruto
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Chakra, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Nothing explicit, Short & Sweet, Sweet, naruto - Freeform, slightly different
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28382670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A decade after their last battle, which left them both severely injured, Naruto decides that enough is enough, and he cannot hide from his feelings for Sasuke or destiny any longer.He embarks on a journey to find his childhood friend.{Maybe a wizard helps him along the way}
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Decennium terrae

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! 
> 
> Kind of wanted to write a sweet, canon divergence fic where Sasuke and Naruto hadn’t seen each other a decade after a really bad, physical fight happened. 
> 
> This is in the Naruto universe so there is Chakra but I haven’t really explicitly mentioned their use of it, so it’s sort of canon.
> 
> Anyhow, hope you enjoy.

_ “He is beyond repair, Naruto.”  _

_ “I know.”  _

_ “Chasing after him, especially after all he has said and done, is foolish and unwise.”  _

_ “I know.”  _

_ “He could kill you, he would, given the chance.”  _

_ “Maybe.”  _

_ “He does not love you.”  _

_ “....” _

•

Naruto’s silky headband slipped through his fingers, bodying the shape of his narrow tips. He let it sit there for a moment, running a smooth, pale finger over the dented crest of the shinobi-labelled metal. 

He remembered once, a distant memory, perhaps even a comfort dream. Sasuke ran at abnormal speeds through the buzzing streets of Konohagakure, being screamed at and slapped with hanging clothes left to dry while playing a one-sided game of tag with Naruto. Dangling Naruto’s toy-headband in his left and concealing streaks of laughter with the right. 

Naruto’s fond smile at the memory quickly contorted to one of agonising pain. How did they go from that? Playful, innocent children to holding knives to each other’s throats. Now playing a game of tag that they’d both rather avoid. 

He gathered the last of his things, barely anything. Just a few changes of cotton clothing, some hygienic supplies and a few tiny, lightweight weapons. Nothing special, nothing new. 

He began to descend from his house, he’d hardly call it his. It was a failed attempt at a life without Sasuke, without the one person he practically started his memories with. He spared one look back up, glancing at Hinata who tearfully waved on in the window. 

He waved back, not meeting her eyes. He couldn’t, she looked too much like Sasuke. It wasn’t fair, on her, on him, on anyone. 

Gazing down at the hard ground one last time in slight shame, his bag clenched firmly in his hand. He muttered quietly, _“Sorry...”_ praying she didn’t see. 

Of course she did. And she uttered words unheard by anyone back, _“I know Naruto...I know.”_

He’d told her his intentions from the beginning, that he’d always loved Sasuke. That he’d regretted never letting him know. That some hollow, buried part of him prayed every morning, every night that next time he saw him there’d be a different gleam to his eyes, not one fuelled by murder, revenge, despair. 

She’d understood, cried in her own time, but understood. Her attempts to love Naruto were selfish, so she could not blame him or abhor him for his decision to leave. 

She just begged whatever higher power there was, _let him come back alive._

•

While trudging through the grizzly and damp forests, Naruto encountered someone. 

An old man with a long, long beard. Little white hairs sticking out of the onyx strands like foreign twigs stuck in an ashy tree. His large pointy hat cast a greasy shadow over his face leaving him almost entirely anonymous. 

His stretched robes caught on leaves and twigs while strolling and Naruto thoughtlessly offered to aid him in reaching his forest cabin. 

•

The elder let Naruto stay the night on the dry oak floor of his living room. By morning, he thanked Naruto for his kindness and revealed that he was a wizard, fuelled by old, unheard of mystic chakra energy, providing him insight to various pasts and futures. 

Naruto scoffed lightly, saying he didn’t believe in those sort of mind-reading clairvoyant things. The elder only glared back, and finally offered to give Naruto a reading of his future. 

Naruto complied, sceptical but with a burning sense of excitement. 

•

_ “The one who owns your heart, shall own no piece but all,  _

_ a darkly young man, and a childhood lover fool,  _

_ If the words unuttered, there will be crimson by the sword,  _

_ If everything is revealed, all shall have reward.”  _

•

Naruto never replied to the prophecy, only felt his stomach sink at the possible interpretation of the words. Nonetheless, his behavior improved back to bubbly normalcy as soon as he was given a cup of smoky, warm mint tea. 

When it was time to go, the bearded man patted Naruto on the back and slipped a torn yellow-tinted map into his palms, pointing at the area that Naruto would find his ‘ _destiny_ ’ and slamming the door in his face without a murmur of a goodbye.

•

Naruto had arrived, it was not his pre-planned destination, but something embedded in his chest told him that he had found what he was looking for. 

Beaming on top of a large mountainous rock, eyes searching like a lighthouse to take in the sight beneath him. He could see in front of him a city purely situated on sand, the only difference from other desert cities were the towering forests and contrasting teal ocean that swooshed near it. The place was as if all elements of the Earth combined into one scenic, breathtaking area. 

He knew then that a mere tsunami could threaten to consume the village whole, swallowing every last remnant and person. Maybe even a tornado or a forest fire that burned too close to the hay houses. But he grinned to himself, no, Mother Nature wouldn’t dare. He could tell she liked this little community all too much. 

The corner of his lips turned upwards, he grabbed the straps of his tediously-damaged backpack with new-found passion. If he could smell the herbs and spices from here, hear the children squealing in delight as they ran through the streets causing mischief, then what was it like to be in the marketplace, in the restaurants, on the pavement? 

He couldn’t wait. 

•

It was exactly what he thought and more, especially the food. He ordered the ramen, disappointed that they didn’t have his go-to but ecstatic once he sipped the pork-noodles right down his throat. 

He dared to think it was better than Ramen Izhiraku but then abandoned the thought shamefully as he imagined his loyal chef back in Konohagakure clanking him over the head with a frying pan. 

When he stepped outside of the cooking establishment, tapping his belly contently he couldn’t help but close his eyes and breath in the windy saltiness of the ocean that lay close by. He could get used to this, but Sasuke...

•

Eh...One more night couldn’t hurt. 

He decided to bunk in a room that a run-down tavern kindly loaned to travellers, for a happy price of course. Naruto felt his pockets screaming. 

He lain back against the window, flicking through a book about magical chakras that he’d cheekily ‘borrowed’ off the wizard’s bookshelf back in the forest. As he lazily and absently flicked though page after page, he startled at hearing a familiar voice strolling the streets below...

“I told you I do not appreciate being called that.” The deep voice provided. 

Naruto halted in his actions immediately, that was...it couldn’t be? 

“B-but sir!” A smaller-sounding man squealed, “You a-are the leader, yes? We must refer to you as Kage, it is merely expected!” 

“Well I am telling you now, Choeum, I do not expect you to refer to me by that name.” 

Naruto couldn’t believe his ears, his lips twitched. He really didn’t dare to move now. Although he was on the second floor, inside an insulated and more-than comfy, empty area he couldn’t help but feel laid bare and vulnerable, naked even. He was fully clothed, but Sasuke made him feel naked. 

That was his childhood friend’s voice, he was sure. And...he was the Kage? Or leader of whatever this place was? Naruto felt swelling pride and a little bit of fear and maybe even...disheartened. 

If Sasuke had come so far...why didn’t he take that extra step and visit - talk to - send a letter - to Naruto? 

“Well then w-what should I call you, sir?” The nervous little follower sounded after Sasuke, Naruto twisted his head around very carefully to peer through the foggy window and almost chuckled at what he saw. 

He was right, it was a short, stoic servant loitering outside, on the streets, with Sasuke. Naruto took in Sasuke, he wore conventional black clothes but he’d grown. His legs a little taller, torso a little longer, face a little fiercer and scars deeper. Much deeper. In this nighty blue lighting, where everything was highlighted, Naruto could identify the little damages they’d given each other in deathly battles. 

He gulped at the memory, shaking his head back and forth viciously to stop them from surfacing. 

“How many times must I say; Call me Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha.” 

Naruto let his book drop and clatter to the floor, covering his gasping mouth. He was worried that they’d heard him from outside after a beat of silence but thankfully, a good 5 minutes later when he peeked outside, they were long gone, probably patrolling the streets as Kages sometimes did. 

_ Call me Uchiha. _

_ Sasuke Uchiha. _

•

“Sire-“ A servant basked in reddish robes that reached his ankles bowed, Sasuke gave a flick of his wrist, indicating that he could talk in the presence of the leader, “-There is a man, he wants to see you sire. He says he comes from a far village.” 

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at that, dropping his scrolls onto his wide desk and curling his fists subconsciously around the edges, his full attention drawn on the increasingly nervous messenger, “Who would want to see me at this time in the morning?” He asked, peering out of the tinted glass which betrayed early beams of white sunlight. “Can it not wait until later?” 

“W-Well...” The servant stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck, “He’s right outside the building.” 

“Huh...” Sasuke turned to face the anxious man once more, “Did he say a name?” 

“Yes sire, he said his name was Naruto?” 

Sasuke couldn’t move all of a sudden, the breath snatched out of his body like being dipped into freezing cold water, his legs threatened to escape from under him and his hands shook from where the previously grabbed at the wooden table. 

“S-Sire?” The smaller man’s teeth were chattering, distantly it bothered Sasuke that everyone who didn’t know him seemed to be so terrified of him. But foremost he focused on the situation at hand. This had to be a trick. 

“Bring him up here, and don’t bother guarding the doors when you do.” 

•

Like a sliding transition, the door moved aside to open up the wider picture of the ‘Kage’s’ office. It was beautiful, almost holy looking. The painted, tinted red and yellow thin glass windows, the marble ground, the oak desk, finely woven couches and seats. But maybe the best masterpiece of them all, Sasuke. 

Sasuke sat on his desk, knuckles white from the tight grip on the corners. He did not hide the way he stared mercilessly at the blonde man who pushed his way into the office but he did not speak first. Naruto would set the pace this time, he would mould to it. 

The now Kage didn’t allow sympathy, upset, happiness, relief, desperation to lace his features. He masked it all perfectly, just how he had most his life. For what reason? He could not say; it was muscle memory. 

Naruto, however, looked like he’d just seen a divine being jump on Earth, devil or angel. Sasuke couldn’t tell if Naruto was about to embrace him in a hug or pull out a shallow blade and watch him soak out to death. 

“Sasuke...” Naruto breathed, “You’re the Kage?” 

It wasn’t a question, only made to look like one. 

He wanted to correct Naruto, tell him he really detested that word now, but he didn’t want to give openings. That would be a conversation for another time, if there was another time. 

“I am the leader of Sanese desert city, yes.” He replied tenderly, albeit blunt while not knowing how to speak, what to say, what to do. 

Naruto opened his mouth, looked down, eyebrows furrowed, looked up, tears almost formed, looked back down. He stepped closer, testing the waters. Sasuke didn’t like that, he was in strangling zones. If Naruto was to strike he wouldn’t have a valuable defence. 

“Please don’t come any closer.” He ordered blankly, Naruto almost scoffed at how much he sounded like a true Kage now, how much he’d grown. His voice had long changed from the boyish squeak he’d once listened to for hours on end, speaking about possible futures and endless possibilities. 

Then Naruto felt hurt, after all these years...that’s what he said? 

“Really? Last time I see you I escape in a coma, within an inch of my life and that’s how you greet me?” Naruto sneered, Sasuke couldn’t help the flinch at the unfamiliar tone.“I should be the one afraid of you coming closer, not the other way around.”

Naruto didn’t raise his voice on a single syllable, Sasuke felt the severity of each word like it had been screamed into his eardrums. He didn’t know Naruto had been in a coma, it was too late though. Too late to say his very overdue and essayed sorries that probably wouldn’t have come out anyways because Naruto was already turning on his heel. His back faced Sasuke who allowed his head to drop down, upset. 

“This was a mistake, I should have never come back.” Was the last thing Naruto whispered. 

•

Not _come_ ,  _ come back .  _

Did that mean Sasuke was his home? 

•

It was those two words, Sasuke couldn’t touch his work, his scrolls, letters from distant lands. His palms were sweating, he’d banged his head against the white concrete walls for minutes now. Trying to usher the blonde man out of his imagination. 

Had he dreamed the whole exchange? Did Naruto really come back? 

Most importantly, what was wrong with himself? After all this time he still had the irreversible thought of not getting hurt, it was like a reflex action. 

Someone brought his food, when would he have to pay it back? 

Someone gave him flowers, when would they wilt? 

Someone made him laugh, when would they make him cry? 

Someone entered his life, when would they leave? 

So he never accepted any food or flowers, never laughed anymore, never accepted anyone into his life. 

But Naruto - Sasuke had pushed him so much. Killed him inside and arguably out on multiple occasions. 

Naruto kept coming back, it was not Naruto who was breaking his trust, but him who was breaking Naruto’s. And he still was braver, because he still came back regardless. 

At that moment he knew what he had to do, grabbing his wool robes to prepare for the brutal desert night, he shouted to the neighbouring office; 

“I am going to go walk, Choeum. Don’t bother chasing me.” 

•

“ _Hello, Kage!”_

_“Where is Naruto? Have you seen him?”_

_“Who?”_

_“Naruto? He’s blonde, spiky haired, whisker like marks?”_

_“....?”_

“ _He eats like a pig and looks like a traveller.”_

_ “Ohh! The pretty boy staying at the Fauxcabin inn?”  _

_ “That’s the one.”  _

•

When Sasuke leaned on the tavern door of Naruto’s room, effectively opening the chunk of wood, it registered that Naruto did not react due to pettiness but rather his deepness of thought. 

The blonde man sat tranquilly on the window sill, thick eyebrows drawn together as he allowed himself to lose to his mind, loose strands dropped smoothly like rain onto his concentrated features. 

Sasuke wondered if this is what Naruto looked when completely at peace, unthreatened, walls down. 

Sasuke brought a fist up to clear his throat but reckoned better of it, moving closer with tiny steps towards his childhood friend and eventually sitting right opposite him on the window sill. Naruto still did not move, his circular, crystal-glazed Irises refusing to meet Sasuke, glaring out onto the streets as if the raven-haired man was not there.

_ If the words unuttered, there will be crimson by the sword, _

“When we were young...” Naruto began, tracing his fingers up and around the frame of the window his head lain against, “,I saw this beautiful, beautiful girl....” 

Sasuke startled at this story, but did not distract, glaring at Naruto intently and listening to every word.

“...I was about 12 or 13, you had just gone off, wandered somewhere and I couldn’t find you. Because that’s how it always was, me chasing your back. I usually didn’t care, but this time I did. It was when I first realised that perhaps the way I cared about you was a one-way road...” 

“...anyways, you’d run off, the day was rainy and boring, Sakura was sleeping in and I had no one to play with. I went wondering around and saw this really gorgeous girl, I only saw her for a moment, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She had these really nice, long black locks, dark eyes that could swallow you whole, dark to the point of no pupils. She had pale, smooth skin and a slightly slim build.” 

Sasuke didn’t know where this was going, but his stomach danced aggressively at what he was assuming. 

Naruto turned to face Sasuke, tears brimming ever so slightly, shining like crystals at the bottom of his diamanté eyes. “But...I did not like her, but I thought about her a lot. And I-I kept thinking, why? Why her? And it wasn’t until one day, when I was in conversation with you that I-“ Naruto cut himself off, staring down at his shaking hands, bringing one up to showcase to Sasuke, “-I’m scared, I’m never scared Sasuke. Why am I scared to tell you this?” 

Sasuke swallowed discreetly, once again not answering Naruto. His nerves were only concealed by years of application and thick robes on his skin. 

“I didn’t think about her because I liked her, I thought about her because I love you.” 

_Love_. 

Sasuke was going to say something back, butnow that Naruto’s wide eyes were on him, that familiar stuck-in-throat lump began to clump together in his breathing pipe, he upped and left Naruto without explanation. Naruto who didn’t look startled at the certain loss of company, just expecting. 

Sasuke rushed to his office, his castle. There he stretched out on the carefully stitched sofas and stared at the ceiling like Medusa at a victim. He tried to slumber, 

he could not. 

•

“ _Choeum, have you ever had a lover?”_

_“S-sorry? Ka - Sasuke?”_

_“Have you ever taken a lover, or loved anyone.”_

_“Y-Yes sir, my wife.”_

_“How did you know; how were you certain that she was the one?”_

_“Well, sh-she was stunning of course. But so are many women...the difference was that she was the opposite to me. Wherever my pride interjected, her kindness interfered. Whenever I was angry, she remained calm. When I look into her eyes, I was certain I would nev- Sasuke? W-Where are you going?”_

_“I must mend something, I shall return.”_

•

As Sasuke stared up at the tavern which dripped in the elegance of the moonlight he found himself feeling especially warm. Sand sunk under his feet and encased them, soft and comforting. It was the second time in the night that he’d been in this position, but this time something had faltered, shifted. 

This was different. 

He took his familiar steps, the customers sat in circles around tables nodding at him respectfully. He winded up the stone stairs and found that, as he splayed his fingers on his chest, he was indeed calm. 

He knocked on the door, once, twice, thrice. It creaked open with a swing; 

“Hello-?” Naruto cut himself off, eyes now huge as he took in the man in front of him. He was gobsmacked and as Sasuke peered around the room behind him he saw that Naruto had been packing, perhaps to leave tonight. He couldn’t have come any later. 

Sasuke leaned forwards, planting both gentle hands right on Naruto’s hips and squeezing at the flesh there over his cotton shirt. He connected his forehead with Naruto’s, closing his eyes but not joining their lips, yet. 

“Sasuke...” Naruto whispered so quietly as if his voice could break him, bringing a tender hand up to caress Sasuke’s pale cheek. He reached an arm out to behind Sasuke as to lightly close the door behind him. 

Sasuke flipped them so that Naruto’s back was smeared against the now closed tavern door and he pierced Naruto with a gaze that could tame a million, burning suns. Effectively burgling his childhood friend’s breath away. 

“What you said Naruto-“ He put a hand atop of the Blonde’s chest, right on the beating organ, “-I apologise, I am sorry. And I dare to say that I feel the same, all my previous attempts at love have been fruitless also. Not that I ever pursued them, but they too were a contorted version of you.” 

“Sasuke...” He breathed, feeling every word as a warm exhale on his lips, an anxious admission. He flung his arms around the onyx-haired mans shoulders, leaning even closer to plant their bodies flush against another, they both went pink at the contact. 

“May I kiss you...?” Naruto asked quietly, inching away from Sasuke’s face ever so slightly as to see his beautiful expression. 

“Kiss me Naruto...a million times if it so pleases you.” 

Naruto smiled at the romantic language, who knew that the Raven haired man had it within? 

They grabbed each other tightly while they embraced each other, firstly not making a sound as to bask in the moment, the feeling. 

{That night they took it slow until sunlight. Careful caresses on the body, tracing every scar they had ever given each other and kissing it as if it healed an invisible wound that lie beneath the surface. They both knew that they had been each other’s hardest touch, and now the softest} 

•

_ “Naruto...”  _

_ “....” _

_ “Are you awake...?”  _

_ “....”  _

_ “I love you. And I always will, always have.”  _

_ “....”  _

_ “Never leave me. I promise that I will never leave you.”  _

_ “...Come back to cuddling me Sasuke, it’s too early for philosophical romance stuff.”  _

_ “Oh...you’re awake.”  _

•

_If everything is revealed, all shall have reward._


End file.
